Musicians outperform nonmusicians in magnitude estimation: evidence of a common processing mechanism for time, space and numbers

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP
Christian Agrillo, Laura Piffer

Abstract

It has been proposed that time, space, and numbers may be computed by a common magnitude system. Even though several behavioural and neuroanatomical studies have focused on this topic, the debate is still open. To date, nobody has used the individual differences for one of these domains to investigate the existence of a shared cognitive system. Musicians are known to outperform nonmusicians in temporal discrimination tasks. We therefore observed professional musicians and nonmusicians undertaking three different tasks: temporal (participants were required to estimate which of two tones lasted longer), spatial (which line was longer), and numerical discrimination (which group of dots was more numerous). If time, space, and numbers are processed by the same mechanism, it is expected that musicians will have a greater ability, even in nontemporal dimensions. As expected, musicians were more accurate with regard to temporal discrimination. They also gave better performances in both the spatial and the numerical tasks, but only outside the subitizing range. Our data are in accordance with the existence of a common magnitude system. We suggest, however, that this mechanism may not involve the whole numerical range.

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Citations

Apr 30, 2013·PloS One·Laura PifferChristian Agrillo
Nov 8, 2014·Behavioral Sciences·Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini
Mar 19, 2014·Neuroscience·C A MikuttaT Koenig
Sep 1, 2012·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Mario BonatoCarlo Umiltà
Oct 21, 2016·Frontiers in Human Neuroscience·Kenny SkagerlundUlf Träff
Mar 23, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Elliot CollinsMarlene Behrmann
Nov 19, 2015·Frontiers in Psychology·Christian AgrilloBrian Butterworth
Dec 24, 2018·Scientific Reports·Kay Thurley, Ulrike Schild
Jan 10, 2019·Frontiers in Psychology·Jonna LoefflerMarkus Raab

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